Subsistence Practices and Social Routine in Neolithic Southern Europe
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Print Publication Date: Mar 2015 Subject: Archaeology, Archaeology of Europe
Online Publication Date: May 2014 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199545841.013.020
Subsistence Practices and Social Routine in Neolithic
Southern Europe
Amy Bogaard and Paul Halstead
The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe
Edited by Chris Fowler, Jan Harding, and Daniela Hofmann
 
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter focuses not on the role of colonizing farmers or indigenous foragers in introducing
domesticates to Neolithic southern Europe, but on the important and more soluble
problems of the nature of land use and its wider ramifications and consequences. With allowance
for the vagaries of archaeological preservation and investigation, Neolithic communities
were largely dependent on small-scale, intensive ‘gardening’ of staple grain
crops. Livestock contributed manure, traction, and dietary protein and variety (meat and
dairy produce). Wild resources played a minor dietary role, but hunting was regionally
important to social reproduction and landscape enculturation. Meat from livestock was
central to commensal reinforcement of collective solidarity in the face of tensions arising
from household-level storage of staple crops and perhaps ownership of land. Radical
changes in cultural landscapes, social relations, and ideology accompanied the inception
of farming, and domesticates were as important to early farmers’ political economy as to
their subsistence.
Keywords: Neolithic, southern Europe, early farmers, land use, staple crops, livestock, garden cultivation, com­
mensality
Introduction
‘SUBSISTENCE’ practices in Neolithic Europe are often subordinated to debate over the
agents of Neolithization. This debate equates migrating farmers versus acculturated foragers
with rapid versus gradual establishment of farming, a packaged versus piecemeal
Neolithic, and ‘economic’ versus ‘ideological’ underpinnings of subsistence change. Framing
subsistence as a reflection of origins, however, ignores its potential for inferring the
consequences of Neolithization, which are both more significant for understanding longterm
social development and more accessible archaeologically. Whilst farmer origins can
only be resolved through ancient human DNA, the rhythms, taskscapes, and sociality of
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Fig. 20.1. Sites in south-east Europe mentioned in
the text.
1, Kalythies; 2, Knossos; 3, Alepotrypa; 4, Kouveleiki;
5, Franchthi; 6, Kastria; 7, Zas; 8, Kefala; 9, Kitsos;
10, Skoteini; 11, Theopetra; 12, Youra/Cyclops cave;
13, Makriyalos; 14, Paliambela-Kolindrou; 15,
Stavroupoli; 16, Anza; 17, Kovacevo; 18, Slatina; 19,
Blagotin; 20, Divostin; 21, Selevac; 22, Vinča; 23,
Starčevo; 24, LepenskiVir; 25, Ecsegfalva 23; 26,
Méhtelek-Nádas; 27, Polgár-Csőszhalom; 28, Schela
Cladovei; 29, Măgura-Buduiasca; 30, Poduri.
subsistence practice offer rich insights into the construction and development of Neolithic
societies and social identities.
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Fig. 20.2. Sites in south-west Europe mentioned in
the text.
1, Grapceva; 2, Danilo; 3, Prokovnik; 4, Bukovic; 5,
Tinj-Podlivade; 6, Nin; 7, Pupicina; 8, Mala Triglavca;
9, Ciclame; 10, Zingari; 11, Edera; 12, Mitreo; 13,
Nogaredo al Torre; 14, Sammardenchia; 15, Piancada;
16, Molino Casarotto; 17, Lugo di Romagna; 18,
Neto-Via Verga; 19, La Marmotta; 20, Villaggio Leopardi;
21, Masseria di Gioia; 22, Mulino Sant’Antonio;
23, Passo di Corvo; 24, Scaloria; 25, Santa Tecchia;
26, Rendina; 27, Ipogeo Manfredi; 28, Torre Sabea;
29, Grotta della Madonna; 30, Grotta del Cavallo; 31,
Grotta dell’Uzzo; 32, Grotta del Genovese; 33, Arene
Candide; 34, Sion Planta; 35, Clairvaux Station III;
36, La Balme de Thuy; 37, Le Chenet des Pierres; 38,
La Grande Rivoire; 39, Pendimoun; 40, Fontbrégoua;
41, Baume Ronze; 42, Baume d’Oulen; 43, Combe
Obscure; 44, Roucadour; 45, Portiragnes; 46, Abeurador;
47, Grotte Gazel; 48, Font Juvénal; 49, Bélesta;
50, Dourgne; 51, Pico Ramos; 52, El Mirón; 53, La
Vaquera; 54, La Revilla del Campo; 55, La Lámpara;
56, Chaves; 57, Bauma Serrat del Pont; 58, Cova
120; 59, La Draga; 60, Camí de Can Grau; 61, Cova
Fosca; 62, Ereta del Pedregal; 63, Cova de la Sarsa;
64, Arenal de la Costa; 65, Jovades; 66, Mas d’Is; 67,
Niuet; 68, Cova del Or; 69, Cova de las Cendres; 70,
Cerro de la Virgen; 71, Nerja; 72, Cueva del Toro; 73,
Cueva de los Murciélagos; 74, Valencina de la Concepción;
75, Zambujal.
This chapter explores Neolithic subsistence practices, land use, and landscape transformation
in southern Europe, using relevant datasets such as human skeletal remains for
diet, and plant and animal remains for husbandry practices. Because of regional differences
in archaeological evidence, formation processes, and research priorities, we focus
first on south-east (Greece and the north Balkans—Fig. 20.1) and then south-west Europe
(from Dalmatia, through Italy and southern France to Iberia—Fig. 20.2). We conclude by
considering what light subsistence practices may shed on social routines at various temporal
and spatial scales.
(p. 386) Food remains on late Mesolithic sites across this large area indicate hunting of indigenous
mammals (e.g. red deer, boar), fishing and shellfish-gathering (near coasts,
lakes, and rivers), and collecting of nuts, fruits, and seeds. Occasional claims of domesticates
in Mesolithic levels of caves or rock shelters (e.g. Cyclops and Theopetra, Greece;
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Abeurador, Fontbrégoua, Dourgne, and Gazel, France; Costa, Spain) appear to be based
on misidentification or stratigraphic mixing. At most early Neolithic sites, especially in
south-east Europe, bones of domestic sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle predominate alongside
cereal and pulse grains; most, if not all, of these domesticates were introduced from
south-west Asia. Human skeletal evidence for diet and nutritional health (e.g. Bonsall et
al. 2004; Le Bras-Goude et al. 2006; (p. 387) (p. 388) Papathanasiou 2003; Triantaphyllou
2001) offers a coarser, but consistent, picture of radical change in human diet between
the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic across much of southern Europe. This transition,
in the seventh millennium BC in Greece and sixth millennium in the north Balkans and
west Mediterranean, was rapid. Whether it occurred in any one region within a single human
generation or over a few centuries is less clear, but apparent examples of gradual
change from hunting to herding may again reflect stratigraphic mixing (Bernabeu et al.
2001). Because of the uneven availability of absolute dates, much of the discussion here
of the subsequent three to four millennia of the Neolithic uses relative chronology: early
(EN), middle (MN), late (LN), and perhaps final (FN) Neolithic. These phases do not have
the same absolute dates across southern Europe, although EN usually refers to the first
centuries following the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition.
Models and methods
The nature of settlement constrains subsistence options: increasing community size enlarges
the territory needed for subsistence, whilst sedentary behaviour restricts the area
exploitable. Accordingly, large sedentary communities need locally concentrated, predictable
resources, whilst small mobile groupings can exploit more dispersed, unpredictable
options. In south-east Europe, EN sites, concentrated in fertile lowland basins,
initially comprised just a few houses, but many developed into deeply stratified and
densely inhabited settlement mounds or ‘tells’. These represent long-lived or repeatedly
occupied ‘villages’ ranging from several tens to a few hundred inhabitants (Raczky, this
volume). Other open sites with more unstable or dispersed residence sometimes developed
into ‘flat-extended’ settlements covering tens of hectares, making contemporaneity
of housing much harder to gauge; given their large area and short duration, these sites
perhaps represent a distinctive form of ‘village’. In the later Neolithic, agriculturally marginal
(arid and dissected) parts of southern Greece were colonized by short-lived open
sites, often representing a ‘farmstead’ or ‘hamlet’ of one or a few households. In southwest
Europe, EN settlements seemingly include equivalents of both small
‘farmsteads’/‘hamlets’ and larger ‘villages’, with the same contrasting implications for
subsistence options (Skeates, this volume ch. 41).
Different types of site also shape the survival and contextual resolution of bioarchaeological
evidence. Tells provide better conditions for bones and charred seeds than shallow
open-air sites, where seasonal wetting and drying affect deposits. Conversely, on shallow
sites, pits and ditches cut into bedrock may combine good organic preservation with
clearer contextual definition than is normal in complex tell deposits, although the latter
more often preserve invaluable burnt occupation levels. In caves, stable temperatures aid
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organic preservation, but natural and cultural reworking may conflate deposits. Moreover,
caves often had specialized functions (burial, stabling, storage), in contrast to openair
habitation sites. These differences are critical given that evidence for Neolithic settlement
and subsistence is overwhelmingly derived from open-air sites in south-east Europe,
but extensively from caves and rock shelters in the south-west. (p. 389) A further issue affecting
archaeobotanical evidence is the predominance of charred preservation in southern
Europe. At rare sites with charred and waterlogged preservation, charring clearly
favours stored plant foods used year-round against those eaten in season. Rarity of
charred wild plant foods implies that these were not stored staples, therefore, rather than
that they were not consumed.
Models of prehistoric farming in southern Europe have often focused on two perceived
characteristics of pre-mechanized farming: extensive cereal agriculture, with plough oxen
and tilled fallow; and large seasonally transhumant herds of goats and especially sheep
grazing lowland stubble and fallow fields in winter and mountain pastures in summer.
These practices were shaped as much by historical contingencies (e.g. inegalitarian land
tenure, urban markets), however, as by environmental constraints and technology. Whilst
extensive farmers and large-scale herders specialized in ‘cash crops’ (wheat, olive oil,
wool, cheese), smallholders practised more intensive, integrated husbandry of a variety of
crops and animals, ploughing with cows and/or digging manually, engaging in labour-intensive
weeding and cereal–pulse rotation, and producing food and raw materials primarily
for domestic consumption. The following discussion explores whether Neolithic land
use better matches the large-scale, extensive, specialized or small-scale, intensive, diversified
end of this spectrum. Per unit of cultivated land or livestock, ‘intensive’ husbandry
is associated with higher yields, but also higher labour inputs, such that ‘extensive’ husbandry
on a large scale is the usual basis of surplus production. (Spring sowing of untilled
lake or river margins has been claimed to achieve the ideal combination of low inputs and
high yields, but recent, opportunistic cases of ‘floodplain cultivation’ resulted in frequent
failures as well as occasional bumper harvests.) For domestic self-sufficiency, intensive
cultivation on a modest scale is adequate, although animal husbandry is less productive
per unit of land than crops so that only a large-scale, specialized herding regime would
suffice as the mainstay of subsistence.
On-site archaeobotanical data, from storage deposits and processing by-products, shed
light on crop diversity, with implications for ecological and dietary stability, as well as social
contexts and routines of consumption. Some crops are linked with particular management
practices (e.g. labour-intensive pulses with small-scale cultivation), but most such
associations relate to crop varieties rather than species and are of questionable relevance
to the past. The ecological characteristics of arable weeds are a better guide to the nature
and management of cultivation areas.
Neolithic livestock species have complementary ecological preferences and productive
potential. Sheep, as specialist grazers, traditionally converted crop stubble and fallow
weeds into manure, whilst goats, cattle, and pigs also browsed or rooted in woodland and
scrub. Pigs produce most offspring, followed by goats, sheep, and finally cattle. Sheep
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and goats were milked more than cattle in southern Europe, whilst pigs especially provided
non-dairy fat for cooking and preserving meat. Cattle provided draught: oxen (castrated
males) for big landowners, and cows for smallholders. Finally, sheep wool and goat
hair were woven into clothing, bedding, and sacks, though the ‘hairy’ coat of early sheep
was less useful. A mixture of livestock species thus favours herd security and self-sufficiency
in (p. 390) a range of products, but conflicting feeding requirements limit the number
of animals that can be kept. Conversely, a single species reduces security and self-sufficiency,
but facilitates maintenance of large herds and specialization in particular prod­
ucts.
The products offered by an animal also depend on age and sex. Culling patterns cannot
demonstrate actual use for milk, meat, or wool/traction, but clarify potential intensity of
use and can be tested against life history evidence: for example, stress-related pathologies
in cattle limb bones may reflect use as draught animals. Species composition, mortality,
and life history thus shed partial but complementary light on the methods and outcomes
of animal management. Similarly, food residues in ceramics may demonstrate processing
of milk and non-dairy adipose fat, but shed no light on intensity of use. Preservation
(mainly waterlogged) of textile fibres and wooden yokes, wheels, or ploughs provides
welcome additional detail, but is unusual in southern Europe. Dental microwear sheds
broad light on diet, including perhaps the degree of grazing pressure, in the weeks before
death. Diachronic changes in biometry and morphology reflect longer-term effects of
management: for example, poor nutrition favours smaller body size and competition between
adult males for mates the reverse.
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in bone collagen and tooth enamel provide direct
evidence of human diet, albeit at coarse resolution (e.g. marine versus terrestrial).
Attempts to identify terrestrial Neolithic diets as crop or animal-based are problematic
since they depend on local isotopic signatures in animals and plants, and the latter are
usually unknown. On-site traces of dung imply availability of ‘stall-manure’ for distribution
and reveal where livestock were sheltered, whilst associated plant remains may shed
more detailed light on animal diet than stable isotopes or dental microwear.
South-east Europe
Plant use and husbandry in south-east Europe
Most archaeobotanical evidence derives from open-air sites and is relatively extensive
from Greece, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and Bulgaria. Despite
variable sampling and recovery, crops clearly dominate most assemblages from the EN
onwards; edible nuts, fruits, and other wild plants occur frequently, but usually at low levels,
and evidence of storage is rare. Crops include several types of wheat (einkorn, emmer,
free-threshing), barley (hulled, naked), and pulses (lentil, pea, grass pea, bitter
vetch, chickpea), all represented by ‘storage’ finds in Bulgaria (Marinova 2007) and most
likewise in Greece (Halstead 1994). In recent multi-site programmes of intensive sam­
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pling and recovery in Greece (Valamoti 2004, 2005) and Bulgaria (Marinova 2006), ‘flat’
sites with relatively thin occupation layers such as Kovacevo yielded lower densities of
charred crop remains than tells with deep deposits. Differences in preservation conditions
rather than commitment to agriculture have thus shaped much of the observed variability
in archaeobotanical representation of crops.
(p. 391) Burnt houses with in situ stores suggest household production and consumption
of a range of cereals and pulses. Bulgarian house stores such as those recovered at Slatina
(Marinova 2006) suggest that mixed harvests of einkorn and emmer wheat were the
dominant staple, stored as ears or spikelets (grains enclosed by chaff) requiring piecemeal
dehusking. Harvesting of ears only has been inferred from the heights of weeds
(Kreuz et al. 2005; Marinova and Thiébault 2008). In such stores, pulses tend to account
for 20–30% by volume relative to cereals—a high proportion compared with recent extensive
agriculture.
Early Neolithic (Starčevo-Criş-Körös, sixth millennium BC) settlements from Serbia,
south-east Hungary, and southern Romania are predominantly ‘flat-extended’. Published
archaeobotanical data are sparse but include multiple cereals and pulses. For example,
einkorn, emmer, barley (mostly hulled), lentil and pea, as well as wild Cornelian cherry,
are known at several Starčevo sites (Borojevič 2006, table 2.5). In Hungary, systematic
flotation at Ecsegfalva 23 has yielded einkorn, emmer, and barley, with traces of other cereals
and lentil; collected wild plants included water chestnut, strawberry, and hazelnut
(Bogaard et al. 2007). Elsewhere, evidence of Körös use of wild plants includes a layer of
hazelnut shell in a pit at Méhtelek-Nádas (Gyulai 2007). In Romania, large-scale recovery
at ‘flat-extended’ Măgura-Buduiasca yielded remains of a range of cereals and pulses
(Walker and Bogaard 2011). Crop diversity at these north Balkan sites, however, is less
than in the southern Balkans and Greece, as typically ‘Mediterranean’ pulses (grass pea,
chickpea) are absent in the earlier Neolithic. The formation of ‘tells’ in the north Balkan
LN/Chalcolithic coincides with a major increase in available data, including burnt house
assemblages of diverse crop ‘stores’ (Gyulai 2007), confirming that the low density of
plant remains on ‘flat’ sites is a function of preservation.
Pollen analyses (Willis and Bennett 1994) and on-site charcoal (Ntinou and Badal 2000;
Marinova and Thiébault 2008) suggest very limited clearance of woodland. Arable weed
assemblages from the southern Balkans, especially rich in Bulgaria (Marinova 2006), suggest
permanent cultivation plots: few woodland taxa but many of disturbed habitats imply
plots established for 5–10 years at least (cf. Bogaard 2002). Ecological analysis further
suggests autumn sowing, excluding spring sowing of floodplains. Bulgarian assemblages
contain the mixture of ‘root-/row-crop weeds’ and ‘cereal weeds’ characteristic of smallscale
and intensive cultivation (Jones et al. 1999). Sheep/goat dung implies herding near
settlements, compatible with small-scale animal husbandry. In the northern Balkans, potential
arable weeds at EN Ecsegfalva 23 and Măgura-Buduiasca also suggest long-established,
intensively managed plots, which at the former site could be accommodated within
areas of dry ground above seasonal floods (Bogaard et al. 2007).
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Animal exploitation in south-east Europe
Despite variation in preservation and recovery, faunal assemblages exhibit some recurrent
trends, especially when small samples (less than 400 identified specimens) are excluded.
Domesticates usually make up more than 95% of the mammals on Neolithic
(p. 392) open sites in Greece (Cantuel et al. 2008) and similarly dominate EN assemblages
from Anza in FYROM (Bökönyi 1976), through Starčevo (following Legge 1990) and Divostin
(Craig et al. 2005) in Serbia, to Ecsegfalva 23 in the Hungarian plain (Bartosiewicz
2007a). In central Greece, evidence for hunting, especially of large game (red deer, boar),
increases modestly in the LN (fifth to fourth millennium BC) (von den Driesch 1987) and
sharply (to 10–50%) on some Bronze Age open sites. A more rapid increase occurs in the
LN (fifth to fourth millennium BC) north Balkans: at Vinča (Dimitrijevič 2008), Selevac
(Legge 1990), and Polgár-Csöszhalom (Bartosiewicz 2005). Both large (especially red
deer and boar) and small mammals are represented in late Mesolithic levels at Franchthi
cave in southern Greece and sites such as Lepenski Vir in the Iron Gates gorge between
Serbia and Romania. The contrasting scarcity of EN evidence for hunting recurs from the
relatively arid and lightly wooded south of Greece, through the better-watered and more
densely wooded valleys of Serbia, to the seasonally inundated Hungarian plain, and so,
excluding the Greek islands, is unlikely to reflect availability of game. Interpreting this
apparent avoidance of hunting (Bartosiewicz 2005, 60; 2007a, 298–299) in terms of the
‘domestic’ symbolic concerns of colonist farmers (Hodder 1990) is favoured by EN avoidance
of antler for tools or ornaments and the contrasting LN mortuary deposition of ornaments
made from boar and red deer teeth in Hungary (Bartosiewicz 2005, 58). Small
game, however, is not avoided (von den Driesch 1987): EN sites in Greece (Cantuel et al.
2008) and Anza in FYROM (Bökönyi 1976) have yielded mammals such as hare, fox, cat,
marten, and roe deer and wetland sites on the Hungarian plain also an impressive diversity
of birds and fish (e.g. Gál 2007; Bartosiewicz 2007b). Similarly, comparison of worked
and unworked bone at LN (sixth to fifth millennium BC) Makriyalos in northern Greece
reveals that domesticates and small game were selected, and large game avoided, as raw
material for artefacts (Isaakidou 2003). Large game, therefore, normally subject to
greater obligations of sharing than small game or domesticates (cf. Barnard and Woodburn
1991), might have been hunted by early farmers, but consumed (collectively?) away
from excavated open settlements.
Sheep are the predominant domesticate, especially in the earlier Neolithic, at open sites
in Greece and FYROM and on the Hungarian plain (Bökönyi 1976; Bartosiewicz 2007a;
Cantuel et al. 2008; Halstead 1996), although cattle are equally frequent at Divostin in
Serbia (Craig et al. 2005). In the LN, sheep give way to cattle or pigs, most rapidly and
sharply in the north Balkans (Bartosiewicz 2005; Dimitrijevič 2008; Greenfield 1999;
Legge 1990). Cantuel et al. (2008, 287) attribute the EN dominance of sheep (grassland
animals) in a more or less wooded landscape to early farmers’ lack of expertise, and Whittle
and Bartosiewicz (2007, 741) to the cultural conservatism of colonists. Bökönyi (1973,
168) argued that livestock reproduced too slowly for early farmers to adjust herd composition
to local environments, but goats and especially pigs are more prolific than sheep
and could rapidly have outnumbered them if farmers wished. The dominance of sheep
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would be unsurprising, however, if livestock were few and often confined to cleared plots
(stubble, fallow, field margins, sprouting cereals) rather than being numerous and ranging
widely across the landscape (Halstead 2006). Several lines of evidence are consistent
with initially small-scale animal husbandry. First, pollen and (p. 393) charcoal fail to register
the impact of early farmers on vegetation. Second, biometric distinction between
large wild and smaller domestic cattle and pigs becomes increasingly clear through the
Neolithic (von den Driesch 1987; Legge 1990), implying limited interbreeding (as do DNA
and aDNA) between domestic and wild populations. The difficulty of isolating modern
free-range pigs from wild boar suggests early domesticates were few enough to be herded
closely or corralled. Third, dental microwear in sheep and goats from EN Ecsegfalva
23 in Hungary (Mainland 2007) and LN Makriyalos in northern Greece (Mainland and
Halstead 2005) reveals a very abrasive diet, implying restriction to heavily overgrazed or
freshly cultivated pasture. Early livestock in south-east Europe, therefore, were probably
few in number and often enclosed on cleared land—an anthropogenic niche ideal for
sheep. Conversely, increasing proportions of cattle and/or pigs in the LN may reflect larger
numbers of livestock exploiting the landscape more extensively and, in Greece, possibly
leaving their imprint in the palynological and geoarchaeological records (Willis 1994;
van Andel et al. 1990).
Sheep exhibit a ‘meat’ culling strategy (slaughter of juvenile–sub-adult males, retention of
adult females) from Greece (Halstead 1987, 1996; Helmer 2000; Isaakidou 2006) to the
north Balkans (Bökönyi 1971, 650; Greenfield 2005; Legge 1990; Bartosiewicz 2007a,
300; Dimitrijevič 2008). Data are sparser for goats and cattle, but ‘meat’ mortality is evident
for both at EN–FN Knossos on Crete (Isaakidou 2006) and for cattle at EN Blagotin
(Greenfield 2005) and LN Selevac (Legge 1990) and Vinča in Serbia (Dimitrijevič 2008);
exceptions (e.g. EN Ecsegfalva 23—Bartosiewicz 2007a) may be due to small sample size.
A ‘meat’ strategy does not preclude modest exploitation for secondary products, however,
and organic residues in ceramics indicate milking at least in the sixth millennium BC at
LN Stavroupoli in northern Greece (Evershed et al. 2008) and EN Ecsegfalva 23 and
Schela Cladovei in the north Balkans (Craig et al. 2005). Likewise, at Neolithic Knossos,
numerous ‘pathological’ traces in adult cows suggest use for traction, albeit on a smaller
scale than is possible with oxen (Isaakidou 2006, 2008). Similar traces are reported in
smaller numbers elsewhere in Neolithic south-east Europe (e.g. Poduri, Romania—Balasescu
et al. 2006).
‘Meat’ mortality precludes specialized dairying, however, and this, coupled with initially
small-scale animal husbandry, means that the dietary staples were grain crops, although
animal produce doubtless improved the nutritional balance, security, and variety of the
food supply and was perhaps doubly important because of the social contexts in which it
was consumed (see ‘Synthesis: subsistence and society in Neolithic southern Europe’).
Livestock were also probably integral to early crop husbandry: manure of animals confined
on arable land would have contributed to soil fertility, sheep perhaps controlled the
resulting risk of ‘lodging’ (stem collapse) by light grazing of sprouting cereals, whilst
cows pulling an ard (scratch-plough) or a sledge loaded with stall-manure could have enabled
intensive cultivation on a larger scale. Ploughing also aids timely sowing and so re­
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duces the risk of crop failure, particularly in southern Greece where severe summer
drought places sowing under acute time stress (Isaakidou 2008). This underlines the importance
of early draught cattle at Knossos.
(p. 394) The open settlements in fertile lowlands that dominate the Neolithic record of
south-east Europe were probably occupied year-round (e.g. Bartosiewicz 2007a, 2007b;
Gál 2007; Halstead 2005), but early farmers must also have ranged regularly beyond
their homes and gardens for medicinal plants, raw materials, pasture or game, and social
contacts. Such forays are perhaps reflected in the abundance of game (much higher than
on the nearby Hungarian plain) at EN open sites in the Iron Gates gorge (Bartosiewicz
2007a). Stable isotopic analysis of human remains here and at Theopetra cave in central
Greece suggests a ‘Neolithic’ diet (Bonsall et al. 2004; Papathanasiou 2003), perhaps reflecting
links to nearby settlements with greater arable potential. There is no evidence
that EN farmers regularly moved long distances or established distant ‘satellite’ sites in
the context of seasonal herding or hunting.
In southern Greece, sparse EN settlement in fertile valleys expanded in the LN to areas
less favourable to grain crops because of low rainfall or poor soils. Alongside established
‘villages’, small, short-lived sites proliferated and the use of caves increased dramatically.
The agriculturally marginal location of many new sites has been interpreted in terms of
seasonally mobile pastoralism (e.g. Sampson 1992) and traces of dung indicate penning of
animals in Kitsos (Brochier et al. 1992, 48) and Kouveleiki A (Karkanas 2006) caves. At
the small open site of Kefala and caves of Kalythies, Kastria, Skoteini, and Zas, goats are
more frequent and cattle and pigs less so than at contemporary villages (Halstead 1996,
31, fig. 2), consistent with herding on a scale large enough to require adjustment to local
landscape. ‘Meat’ mortality for sheep and goats again precludes specialized dairying
(Halstead 1996), however, whilst isotopic and pathological evidence from human skeletons
implies a crop-based diet at both inland (Kouveleiki, Skoteini) and coastal (Alepotrypa)
caves and the Kefala hamlet (Papathanasiou 2003). Some caves have yielded remains
of cereals and pulses, although it is not clear whether crops were grown locally, whilst
others were used for burial; increasing evidence for use of caves perhaps reflects
changes in social practices as much as subsistence routines. LN–FN marginal colonization
by small open sites and perhaps caves thus seemingly replicated the mixed farming
of earlier Neolithic villages. Any expansion in the scale of herding apparently did not
weaken dietary dependence on grain crops, although more frequent crop failures in marginal
areas probably made livestock more important as an emergency food source.
South-west Europe
Plant use and husbandry in south-west Europe
Archaeobotanical evidence from Dalmatia has been limited by a research focus on caves
in karstic terrain unsuitable for agriculture (Moore et al. 2007a). Crops are therefore
lacking even for periods when cultivation is beyond doubt (Forenbaher and Miracle
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2005). However, recent large-scale sampling has recovered EN cereals (barley, emmer,
(p. 395) einkorn), pulses (lentils, grass pea), flax, and wild fruits from the open settlement
of Prokovnik (Moore et al. 2007b) and a similar spectrum from the MN settlement of
Danilo (Moore et al. 2007a).
Data from Italy derive mostly from open-air sites, but two caves are noteworthy. At Uzzo
in Sicily (Costantini 1989), Mesolithic levels yielded sparse wild legumes, fruits and nuts
(strawberry tree, acorn, grape), whilst the earliest Neolithic yielded a range of cereals
(einkorn, emmer, barley) and pulses (lentil, grass pea, or vetchling), as well as olive and
figs. In north-west Italy, EN remains from Arene Candide include a range of cereal types
(Binder and Maggi 2001). The rarity of cereal chaff and weed seeds from central-western
Mediterranean cave sites arguably reflects processing at habitation sites elsewhere (Zapata
et al. 2004; Peña-Chocarro 2007).
Sparse data from open-air sites in central and southern Italy suggest cultivation of multiple
cereals (barley, einkorn, emmer, free-threshing wheat) and pulses (pea, lentil, vetches,
broad bean) (Rottoli and Pessina 2007). Waterlogged preservation at sixth millennium
BC La Marmotta confirms a similarly broad spectrum, alongside oil-seed crops (flax, opium
poppy) and a range of wild plants. Grape remains may suggest viticulture. Together
with evidence from Iberia (see below, this section), abundant poppy remains from La Marmotta
indicate cultivation of this species within its natural central-west Mediterranean
distribution area by the mid-sixth millennium BC. Opium poppy currently provides the
clearest botanical case of local domestication in Neolithic Europe.
A similar diversity of cereals (barleys, emmer, einkorn, free-threshing wheat), pulses (pea,
lentil, bitter vetch, grass pea), and fruits/nuts (hazelnut, apple, acorn, blackberry,
hawthorn, plum, grape) characterizes sites in northern Italy, such as mid-sixth to mid-fifth
millennium BC Sammardenchia (Rottoli and Pessina 2007). A burned house at Lugo di Romagna
provides a snapshot of household-level plant use, including emmer (in store), barley,
free-threshing wheat and a little einkorn, peas, lentils, acorns, and hazelnuts (Rottoli
and Pessina 2007). The role of wild plant foods is underlined by frequent concentrations
of acorn shell (Rottoli and Castiglioni 2008).
In southern France, the scarcity of archaeobotanical data from EN (Cardial) caves and
rock shelters has been linked with slow uptake of farming relative to pottery and domestic
animals but probably reflects site type and location (Mills 1984). Though sparse, data
suggest use of a range of cereals, including einkorn, emmer, free-threshing wheat, and
naked barley (Hopf 1991). Limited archaeobotanical investigation of MN (Chasséen)
open-air sites suggests use of bitter vetch and broad bean alongside cereals (Hopf 1991;
Marinval 1991). Intensive sampling and flotation at a high-altitude MN (mid-fifth to midfourth
millennium BC) open-air site, Le Chenet des Pierres in the French Alps, has revealed
abundant evidence for cereals (especially naked wheat and barley), pea, opium
poppy, arable weeds, and collected fruits and nuts (Martin et al. 2008). Together with regional
ethnohistorical and palynological evidence, the assemblage suggests high-altitude
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farming as a possible alternative to widely assumed seasonal transhumance between
plains and mountains (see ‘Animal exploitation in south-west Europe’).
(p. 396) Open-air sites in Iberia have yielded crop processing residues (chaff as well as
grain) lacking at cave sites (Zapata et al. 2004; Stika 2005). The partially submerged later
sixth millennium BC open site of La Draga in Catalonia exemplifies the contrasting
preservational biases of charring (evidence for cereals and pulses) versus waterlogging
(evidence for gathered wild plants) (Buxó et al. 2000; Buxó, pers. comm.). Iberian cave
sites co-existed with open settlements and probably served specialized purposes such as
animal shelters. Archaeobotanical datasets from EN caves in Catalonia range from a lack
of crop remains at Bauma Serrat del Pont to multiple cereal and pulse crops at Cova 120
(Buxó 2007; Zapata et al. 2004). Further down the Mediterranean coast, caves provide
most of the available evidence, encompassing cereals, pulses, and wild plants, especially
acorns (Buxó 2007; Zapata et al. 2004). In Andalusia, Cueva del Toro yielded a wide spectrum
of cereals (emmer, free-threshing wheat, naked barley) and pulses (pea, lentil, broad
bean, bitter vetch, grass pea), and Cueva de los Murciélagos mid-sixth millennium BC
opium poppy alongside free-threshing wheat, emmer, and naked barley (Peña-Chocarro
2007). In north-central Iberia, La Vaquera cave yielded a range of cereals and two pulses
(lentil, vetch) as well as acorns and grapes; a lack of chaff contrasts with finds of chaff
and grain at open-air La Lámpara and La Revilla del Campo in the northern Meseta
(Peña-Chocarro 2007; Stika 2005). In mostly fifth millennium BC assemblages from caves
in north-west Spain, Pico Ramos seems specialized in wild resources, whilst others (e.g.
El Mirón) yielded sparse remains of cereals alongside domestic fauna (Zapata et al. 2004;
Zapata 2007).
Wood charcoal from caves and rock shelters in north-west Italy and southern France
(Thiébault 2001, 2005; Vernet 2005) generally suggests weak EN human impact on woodland
in karstic hill and mid-altitude mountain zones. Increased evergreen oak and garigue
scrub plants from the MN onwards may reflect use of deciduous oak, ash, and other
species for leaf fodder. The scale of EN–MN upland herding probably varied across the
western Mediterranean but was apparently modest compared with recent practice (see
‘Animal exploitation in south-west Europe’) (Thiébault 2001; Delhon et al. 2009).
Caves used as animal pens (grottes bergéries) have been identified from dung deposits
and shed deciduous teeth (see ‘Animal exploitation in south-west Europe’). Archaeobotanical
analysis of burnt dung layers at early fifth to mid-third millennium BC La Grande
Rivoire suggests leaf and twig foddering using oak, ash, lime, and hazel, echoing evidence
from Alpine Foreland lake villages (Delhon et al. 2008) and supporting previous
charcoal- and pollen-based inferences at cave sites across the French Alps (e.g. Thiébault
2005). Given the opportunistic nature of gathering twig fodder during winter/early spring,
and the high labour costs of gathering and storing leafy fodder, evidence of both practices
at upland and lowland/lakeshore sites suggests herding on a small scale. The same may
be argued for south-east Spanish caves (Badal 2002, 143).
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South-west European weed assemblages are generally too sparse for in-depth ecological
analysis, but the taxa attested suggest established plots rather than shifting cultivation
(e.g. Rottoli and Pessina 2007; Stika 2005; cf. Bogaard 2002). Relatively abundant evidence
from LN Clairvaux Station III, Chalain in the French Jura suggests cereal husbandry
akin to intensive ‘gardening’ (Lundström-Baudais 1986).
(p. 397) Animal exploitation in south-west Europe
Although faunal analysis has focused on caves and rock shelters, fairly consistent evidence
is emerging from lowland open settlements. In Dalmatia, lowland EN–MN (sixth
millennium BC) villages at Pokrovnik, Danilo, Nin, and Tinj-Podlivade resemble those in
Greece and the eastern Balkans: very sparse evidence for hunting (mainly small game at
Pokrovnik and Danilo) and heavy dominance of sheep, which exhibit ‘meat’ mortality
(Legge and Moore 2011; Miracle 2006; Mlekuz 2005). In southern Italy, early Neolithic
(sixth to fifth millennium BC) ditched enclosures as at Passo di Corvo, Rendina, and Santa
Tecchia (see Skeates, this volume ch. 41) likewise have little evidence for hunting and
sheep/goats account for 50–65% of domesticates, with sheep/goats and cattle at Torre
Sabea again matching ‘meat’ mortality (Vigne 2003). The nature of animal exploitation at
many smaller open settlements is largely unknown. In lowland central Italy, domesticates
predominate in small samples from EN (sixth millennium BC) open settlements at Villaggio
Leopardi and La Marmotta (Cassoli and Tagliacozzo 1995). On the coast of southern
France, the EN open settlement at Portiragnes displays little hunting and specialization in
sheep that exhibit ‘meat’ mortality (Tresset and Vigne 2007; Vigne and Helmer 2007, 25,
fig. 6). In Spain, there is growing evidence for EN open settlements, which include substantial
ditched enclosures as at Mas d’Is (Bernabeu et al. 2003), but faunal evidence is
still sparse. Domesticates make up 93% of the sample from EN La Draga, with sheep/
goats most abundant and mortality among sheep/goats and cattle conforming to a ‘meat’
strategy (Saña 2000).
With EN open settlements displaying scarcity of game, predominance of sheep (/goats)
over cattle and pigs, and ‘meat’ mortality, faunal as well as archaeobotanical evidence
broadly resembles that from south-east Europe and a similar regime of small-scale, integrated
mixed farming has been suggested (Bernabeu et al. 1995, 269–281; Robb and Van
Hove 2003). Early predominance of sheep is often less marked than in south-east Europe
(though most Italian assemblages are small or cover broad temporal spans), but coastal
sites in southern France and eastern Spain, specializing in sheep, have been interpreted
as ‘beachheads’ of colonist farmers (Vigne 2000).
Later Neolithic open sites to varying degrees display the more even balance of domesticates
seen in south-east Europe. In Dalmatia, sheep(/goats) were heavily dominant in the
EN, but drop to c. 60% of domesticates at FN Bukovic (Miracle 2006). In Italy, at MN–LN
Masseria di Gioia and FN Neto-Via Verga, small samples are again inconsistent. Southern
Iberia is more informative, though LN–Copper Age (fourth to third millennium BC) open
sites must be compared with EN caves such as Cendres, Nerja, Or, and Sarsa (Pérez
Ripoll 1999). At the latter, sheep are the commonest domesticate, followed by pigs, with
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goats and cattle scarce, whilst on later open sites these four species are fairly evenly represented.
Although the EN caves were apparently not specialized herding sites (see below,
this section), the trend from sheep at EN caves to goats at later open sites, which
does not match local grazing conditions, suggests an (p. 398) overall regional expansion of
animal husbandry (Pérez Ripoll 1999, 98), as has tentatively been proposed for LN southeast
Europe. Charcoal data, however, suggest that the combined impact of crop and livestock
husbandry on local vegetation was modest until the third millennium BC (Badal et
al. 1994). Mortality data for the LN–Copper Age show high proportions of juvenile and
sub-adult deaths for combined sheep and goats, consistent with management primarily
for meat. An exception is third millennium BC Arenal de la Costa, where goats outnumber
sheep and many animals reached old age. Together with much higher adult male survivorship
for sheep than goats at third millennium BC Cerro de la Virgen, Valencina de la Concepción,
and Zambujal, this implies management for different goals: sheep for meat (and
conceivably wool); goats for milk (Pérez Ripoll 1999). The survival of most cattle to adulthood
(with 20–40% achieving old age at fourth millennium BC Jovades and third millennium
BC Ereta del Pedregal, Arenal de la Costa, and Cerro de la Virgen) and high proportions
of adult males (including probable castrates) favour traction, as do ‘traction pathologies’
(Pérez Ripoll 1999). Unfortunately, faunal evidence is insufficient to explore the relationship
between animal husbandry strategies and different types and sizes of sites.
At Molino Casarotto (c. 5000 BC) in the Alpine foothills of north-east Italy, lake-side huts
with ceramics are associated with sparse remains of domestic animals and crops, but
abundant red deer, boar, and gathered water chestnuts (Jarman 1971), whilst EN (sixth
millennium BC) open sites further east, at Piancada and Nogaredo al Torre, are overwhelmingly
dominated by domesticates. Only regional-scale analysis of seasonality and
human mobility will clarify whether Molino Casarotto represents limited adoption of domesticates
by foragers or seasonal foraging by farmers. In north-east Spain, EN open
sites with domesticates and caves with mainly wild fauna (e.g. Chaves, Fosca) raise similar
questions. Likewise, on the Atlantic coast of north-west Spain, domesticates are increasingly
documented from the fifth millennium BC, but wild plants and animals predominate
at some sites (González Urquijo et al. 1999). In the extremely heterogeneous western
Alps, however, where domesticates predominate at EN open sites in valleys (e.g. Sion
Planta), it seems implausible that caves with mainly wild animals (e.g. La Balme de Thuy)
represent independent groups of foragers (Chaix and Sidi Maamar 1993).
Open-air sites devoted largely to hunting are also known from the LN, as at fourth millennium
BC Roucadour or Mulino Sant’ Antonio (Albore Livadie et al. 1987–88) in the hills of
southern France and southern Italy respectively. In southern Italy, ceremonial deposition
of deer crania in the Ipogeo Manfredi and of wild animal bones in Grotta Scaloria, and
use of deer canines as personal ornaments, all underline the symbolic importance of
game (Robb 2007, 128). In north-east Spain bones of wild animals are selected in fourth
millennium BC graves at Camí de Can Grau (Gibaja 2004). Painted human and animal representations
in southern Italian caves, such as Grotta del Genovese, suggest a link between
hunting and rites of social reproduction (Pluciennik 2002; Skeates 1994). The same
may be argued for the potentially LN rock art in eastern Spain (McClure et al. 2008). The
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performance of these rites at a distance from agricultural settlements presumably played
a part in regional-scale social integration and landscape enculturation (e.g. Bernabeu et
al. 2003).
(p. 399) The use of caves to shelter livestock is widely attested in southern France, eastern
Spain, northern and southern Italy, and along the eastern side of the Adriatic (e.g.
Boschian and Montagnari-Kokelj 2000; Brochier et al. 1992). A distinction must be drawn,
however, between the presence of dung with rich cultural material (e.g. Font Juvénal rock
shelter, south-west France—Brochier 1991, 306), implying management of livestock
among other activities, and thick layers of dung with little cultural material, reflecting
specialized use for penning livestock. In southern France, specialized grottes bergéries
seem particularly characteristic of the MN (fifth to fourth millennium BC) Chasséen period,
with more mixed use attested before and afterwards (Brochier 1991, 2006). Corralling
of livestock in caves likewise began, or intensified, a few centuries into the local Neolithic
at Edera, Zingari, and perhaps Pupicina in the Istrian karst (Boschian and MontagnariKokelj
2000; Forenbaher and Miracle 2005), at Arene Candide on the coast of north-west
Italy (Courty et al. 1991), and at Cendres in eastern Spain (although loss of cultivable
land to rising sea level may have been a factor in the last case). From a few centuries after
the inception of farming, therefore, in several regions of south-west Europe, livestock
were sheltered in caves in greater numbers or for longer periods and, at Cendres, charcoal
registers their impact on local vegetation (Badal 2002). MN livestock numbers remained
well below the level needed to create the ‘degraded’ landscapes of the recent
past, however, and at Bélesta cave in the Pyrenean foothills did not significantly transform
vegetation until the Bronze Age (Brochier et al. 1998).
The scarcity of cultural material in grottes bergeries implies primary human habitation
elsewhere. Moreover, whilst shed milk teeth (fallen from live animals) are present in some
of these caves (e.g. Baume Ronze), their absence in others implies removal of at least part
of the herd (Brochier 2006; Helmer et al. 2005) for at least part of the year. ‘Home’ settlements
were perhaps not adjacent to the caves given that accumulations of dung were left
in situ rather than removed to fertilize arable plots (Brochier 2006, 141), but hints of
year-round slaughter at caves across the region (Forenbaher and Miracle 2005; Helmer et
al. 2005, 180; Rowley-Conwy 1991) imply a distance that could be covered in hours rather
than days. Caves with Neolithic evidence for penning of livestock are mostly at low to
medium altitudes (0–600m) and several have faunal evidence (newborn lambs or kids,
shed deciduous teeth of young adult sheep or goats) of late winter–early spring use
(Forenbaher and Miracle 2005; Helmer et al. 2005; Rowley-Conwy 2000). Possibly livestock
were removed in late winter from open settlements, where very young lambs and
kids are scarce (Helmer et al. 2005), to safeguard growing crops or to shelter in caves
from cold weather (especially important for pregnant/lactating females and newborn offspring).
Neolithic flint scatters have been found above 1900 m in the southern French
Alps (Walsh et al. 2006), close to potential summer pasture, but faunal remains from midaltitude
caves provide as much evidence of hunting as herding (e.g. Chaix and Sidi Maamar
2003). There is no hint that MN grottes bergeries were integrated in long-distance
transhumant pastoralism (Brochier 2006) and some subsequently saw more intensive
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habitation and a more diverse domestic animal fauna, suggesting use as (or proximity to)
mixed farming residential bases (Brochier 2006, 147–148). The same (p. 400) trend is apparent
east of the Adriatic, at Pupicina (Forenbaher and Miracle 2005) and perhaps
Grapčeva (Miracle 2006), and in southern Greece, at Zas. Grottes bergeries may thus represent
a short-term phase in the expansion of mixed farming, rather than the development
of specialized pastoralism.
Milk residues have been found in EN pottery from Mala Triglavca rock shelter in Slovenia
(Soberl et al. 2008), and early lamb or kid mortality consistent with intensive ‘milk’ management
at several caves across the region from Ciclami, Edera, Mitreo, Pupicina, and
Zingari at the head of the Adriatic (Miracle 2006; Mlekuz 2005) to EN Arene Candide
(Rowley-Conwy 2000) and MN Combe Obscure (Vigne and Helmer 2007) further west.
‘Milk’ mortality could be an artefact of seasonal use of caves, around lambing/kidding
time, but is encountered in caves with evidence of slaughter in other seasons too (Mlekuz
2005). Moreover, contrasting levels of infant mortality for sheep and goats at EN–MN
Arene Candide (Rowley-Conwy 2000) and EN Baume d’Oulen (Helmer et al. 2005) suggest
a real difference in management goals (as also in LN–Copper Age southern Iberia—
see above, this section). Relatively enriched stable nitrogen isotope ratios from Neolithic
humans at EN–MN (sixth to fourth millennium BC) Arene Candide and, to a lesser extent,
EN (sixth millennium BC) Pendimoun are consistent with diets high in animal protein (Le
Bras-Goude et al. 2006).
Dairying yields more energy per animal than consumption of meat alone, but is more
labour-intensive and riskier. Neolithic sheep and goats exhibit ‘meat’ mortality at Cavallo,
Madonna, and Uzzo caves in southern Italy (Tagliacozzo 1993, 2000) and at most such
sites in southern France (Vigne and Helmer 2007). ‘Milk’ mortality profiles are restricted
to the earlier Neolithic in several caves at the head of the Adriatic (Miracle 2006; Mlekuz
2005), at Arene Candide in north-west Italy (Rowley-Conwy 2000), and (for cattle as well
as sheep/goats) in open settlements of the lower Alpine valleys. Dairying was perhaps
characteristic of the inception of farming, when limited clearance restricted numbers of
livestock, and gave way to less labour-intensive ‘meat’ management when expanding
clearance allowed larger herds (Legge 1981; also Rowley-Conwy 2000).
Synthesis: subsistence and society in Neolithic
southern Europe
Stable isotope evidence of the Neolithic human diet in southern Europe points to subsistence
on terrestrial plants and animals, the remains of which are overwhelmingly from
domestic cereal and pulse crops and livestock. Livestock were exploited for milk as well
as meat and, alongside wild resources, contributed to a more diverse and balanced diet.
Prevalent ‘meat’ mortality precludes widespread specialized dairying, however, and implies
primary dependence on crops—especially for ‘village’ communities. At a (p. 401) few
caves on the northern margins of the west Mediterranean, however, sheep and/or goat
approximate to a ‘milk’ pattern, especially in the EN. Apparently not just an artefact of
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seasonal mobility, this might reflect greater dietary reliance on livestock where cultivation
was unreliable, as human stable isotope data from Arene Candide perhaps imply.
Evidence of indoor storage, principally from burnt levels on south-eastern tells and rare
south-western waterlogged sites, suggests diversified crop production by small residential
groups or ‘households’, whilst dehusking by-products of hulled wheats on open-air
sites are consistent with piecemeal, household-level food preparation. Some Mediterranean
pulses did not initially spread to the north Balkans, but farmers grew a wide
range of grain crops, thus spreading labour and risk and introducing dietary diversity.
Labour-intensive pulses hint at small-scale cultivation, consistent with low anthropogenic
impact on local and regional vegetation in charcoal and pollen records, respectively; crop
weeds also suggest stable and probably intensive cultivation. Temporal and regional variability
in archaeobotanical data arguably reflect differential preservation and retrieval,
rather than differences in crop husbandry.
Cattle mortality usually approximates to a ‘meat’ strategy, but together with ‘traction
pathologies’ suggests draught oxen in south-east Spain in the LN–Copper Age, compatible
with Sherratt’s (1981) fourth to third millennium BC ‘secondary products revolution’.
Data from Crete, however, indicate much earlier use of draught cows, consistent with
small-scale tillage and thus intensive crop husbandry, and suggesting particular reliance
on draught cattle where autumn sowing was under greatest time stress. In south-east Europe,
early dominance of sheep suggests small-scale herding tied to arable land; later increases
in pigs, cattle, or goats may reflect larger numbers making wider use of the landscape,
although dental microwear in both periods implies close confinement on disturbed
or overgrazed land. In the south-west, species composition displays a similar trend; differences
in some regions may partly be due to sampling. Wild animals are scarce on most
open settlements, but better represented at some caves and rock shelters especially in
the west Mediterranean, where hunting is also celebrated in rock art. Use of wild animal
teeth as ornaments in south-west and south-east Europe, however, and the introduction of
wild animals to Aegean islands, suggests more widespread cultural significance. Use of
caves for burial and herding is better documented in south-west than south-east Europe,
probably reflecting regional differences in social reproduction rather than land use; in
both regions caves sheltered small-scale, short-distance herding with limited impact on
the regional landscape.
With domestic storage and intensive crop husbandry in stable clearings, households probably
enjoyed recurring rights to cultivated plots, even if a larger ‘village’ community undertook
clearance, enclosure, and defence. Household control of plots and produce would
have reduced risk of underproduction in the face of highly seasonal demands for hard
labour, but threatened collective cohesion. Neolithic societies in southern Europe asserted
domestic independence through architectural elaboration of houses and communal solidarity
through enclosure, burial, and other rites emphasizing collective identity. Rituals
in caves confirm that collective identity was bound up with control of the wider cultural
landscape, beyond enclosed gardens.
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(p. 402) Elaborate ceramic ‘tableware’ stresses the importance of formal commensality. In
contrast to domestic storage of staple crops, most livestock were killed too old, and so too
big, for consumption by a single household, but carcasses were processed intensively
(Halstead 2007; Saña 2000, 160). Pre-depositional dispersal of carcass parts at EN–FN
Knossos and EN Paliambela-Kolindrou suggests widespread distribution of meat (Isaakidou
2007). Since most domesticates could have been slaughtered younger and smaller,
they were arguably raised for consumption by large social groups. The animals slaughtered
ranged from small lambs to large adult cattle, however, so the consumption of meat,
and of beverages such as wine or milk (Urem-Kotsou et al. 2002; Valamoti et al. 2007),
was probably a vehicle for competition as well as solidarity. At LN Makriyalos, northern
Greece, a pit with remains of hundreds of butchered animals, standardized serving vessels,
and individualized cups simultaneously signals collective solidarity and intra-communal
competition (Pappa et al. 2004). Commensality presupposes surplus, probably intrinsic
to grain production in the highly seasonal and somewhat uncertain climate of southern
Europe (Halstead 1989). Given unpredictable harvests and labour supply varying over
the domestic cycle, early farming households will periodically have under- or overproduced
relative to their needs. Surplus grain of limited ‘shelf-life’ could have been used to
recruit labour or to fatten livestock for consumption at a feast that would earn political
capital and so help recruit labour in future. Although of secondary dietary importance,
therefore, livestock were central to Neolithic political economies and their articulation
with staple crop production.
Conclusion: from pattern to process
The traditional model of sudden change from mobile Mesolithic foragers to sedentary Neolithic
farmers has rightly been questioned. To a surprising degree, however, south-west
Asian crop and livestock species were adopted rapidly and as an integrated package
across southern Europe. The transition was doubtless gradual and piecemeal on the
timescale of human agents, but available temporal resolution obscures this, and much
purported evidence for gradual transition may be illusory. Hunting played an important
role in Neolithic social reproduction and landscape enculturation, but not normally in
subsistence. Neolithic settlement patterns varied regionally and diachronically, as did
subsistence practices, but regional variability in archaeo-botanical and faunal data is
mainly shaped by archaeological formation processes and research traditions. Available
evidence suggests Neolithic populations across southern Europe subsisted primarily on
cereal and pulse crops, probably grown under small-scale, intensive, and stable conditions.
Livestock were of secondary dietary significance, though integral to crop production
and social interaction. Adoption of south-west Asian domesticates was linked with unprecedented
forms of social integration (household, local community), property (domestic
control of stored (p. 403) crops and probably arable plots), and cultural landscape (often
focused on relatively long-lived settlements), making discussions surrounding the relative
role of economy and ideology in Neolithization meaningless; much of the elaborate material
culture of Neolithic southern Europe may represent strategies for mediating tensions
inherent to the new and dynamic social order, domestic economy, and ideology. Despite
Subsistence Practices and Social Routine in Neolithic Southern Europe
Page 19 of 29
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adopting a largely common set of domesticates, Neolithic societies across southern Europe
exhibit considerable regional, and sometimes local, diversity in strategies of residence,
social reproduction, and landscape enculturation. Whether colonists or acculturated
foragers were the biological ancestors of Europe’s earliest farmers is currently unanswerable,
but in any case sheds little light on EN social formations, let alone those that
developed over the following three or four millennia. The agency of early European farmers
is evident in their diverse mediations of the tensions and contradictions inherent to
Neolithic economy and ideology, not in obedience to environmental constraints or cultural
templates.
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Notes:
(*
) Paper first received March 2009
Amy Bogaard
Amy Bogaard is an archaeobotanist and prehistorian, trained in Bryn Mawr (BA) and
Sheffield (MSc and PhD) and now teaching at Oxford University. Her research interests
include novel applications of isotopic analysis to the study of human land use
and diet, the development of weed-ecological models for the investigation of crop
husbandry methods, and the land use and consumption practices of early farmers in
the Near East and Europe.
Paul Halstead
Paul Halstead has a BA and PhD in archaeology from Cambridge University and has
taught zooarchaeology and later European prehistory since 1984 in the Department
of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. His research has focused primarily on
Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age society and economy, including animal husbandry
and consumption, and integrates faunal and textual evidence in the light of ethnographic
studies of ‘traditional’ animal exploitation.